The Kealas Conflict
by ChaosKenny
Summary: It follows a squad of Guardsman on a foreign planet. Read on to find out what happens. I plan to take this conflict and develop it into a series following different squads from different races through the planet. Critiques are welcomed!


Background: Did this back in high school for an English paper a long while ago. Yes, I realize there are several mistakes both in the lore, grammar, and spelling. I just liked the story, so I could care less about that stuff! Any corrections in the lore is fine with me! All characters, the regiment, etc. are all made up for the purpose of the story. Any improvements or suggestions would be great.

The Kealas Conflict

Sergeant Karde found himself falling faster than he had ever before. He knew well the speeds of falling from his history of battles. The ground was rapidly approaching, too rapidly he thought. He checked his altimeter, showing that he was falling well over two-hundred miles per hour. To his left and right he could see the rest of his squad, The Ravens, falling around him. If he had his squad with him, this wouldn't be as bad as it could have been, he thought. He noted the locations of the communications array and warp gate as he was falling. Suddenly, his world went black.

Karde was part of the 5th Cadian Regiment of the Imperial Guard; more specifically the Ravens Battalion. The Ravens were known as some of the fiercest soldiers in the entire 5th Cadian, and were especially known for their special operations achievements. As a Raven, their mission was to fly at extremely high altitudes and then jump and land not near their objective, but on it using grav-chutes. These are special parachutes that are made of energy and softened landings, but they only activate fifty feet off of the ground. There were many perks to being part of the Ravens. They had virtually everything they needed, high quality armor, master crafted rifles and equipment, and rare weapons such as the meltagun; a rare weapon that fired a superheated beam of plasma that is hot enough to melt through walls and tanks like a hot knife through butter.

The planet the Ravens landed on was known as Kealas, and it was part of the Glorimus System – a system known for being so tainted by the Chaos Blood God, Khorne, that it was said one could smell it over a system away. The systems adjacent to Kealas were uninhabitable due to the screams of suffering and pain that one could hear from the nearby tainted system. Those that tried to live nearby were driven insane within a week of landing on the planets. Only men with special training against the ruinous powers of chaos could ever have hoped to make any progress in the Glorimus System.

The idea for the attack was simple, have the Ravens drop in behind enemy lines to take out the communications array, and then do what they can to stop the Daemon reinforcements through the planet's warp gate. This was easier said than done, however. The planet was guarded significantly against any air-based precision strikes, and had a significant ground presence as well. Preliminary reports of the planet surface indicated, to the dismay of the 5th Cadian, that Khorne's forces were indeed on the planet. Chaos Defilers, four legged machines with a claw on two front arms and an unwilling soul bound to its shell were spotted. Bloodletters, Khorne's very own Daemons were present. However, perhaps the most freighting aspect of the upcoming battle was the fact that Traitor Marines had been spotted.

Traitor Marines were once the Imperium's finest soldiers. They carried genes from an actual god in their bodies. Each one of them stood nearly eight feet tall, nine feet with their massive power armor. They were said to have the strength of ten men, and were able to survive a hit that would fell a normal man ten times over. They all had three lungs and two hearts, each spare being bionic. A surgical implant was put into each Marine's throat, which siphoned out harmful gas and smoke when they breathed. Even their eyes were modified so that they could see through smoke and debris as if it was not there at all. These elite soldiers were the finest of any Chaos army, and as such were warriors to be feared. If the Traitor Marines were truly spotted on Kealas, then something terrible was about to happen to the surrounding system. They are the tell-tale sign of a massive operation, one that should not be overlooked.

It was decided; something had to be done before the forces of Chaos could have a chance to truly dig itself into the Glorimus system. The 5th Cadian would be sent in, and would call upon the aide of the famous Space Marines, the true representatives of the Imperium. The Space Marines didn't need mutations and inhuman strength to fight, such as the ways of the Traitor Marines – they had the will of The Immortal God Emperor behind them. They would not lose, the 5th Cadian knew. Nobody, however, knew exactly what was transpiring on Kealas – this was not a good thing. With nothing but pict-scans and dusty manuscripts to go by, some of the Imperium's finest soldiers set off.

Sergeant Karde awoke on the ground, the ground around him ruined from his decent. He was lucky, he figured, that his automated grav-chute deployed like it was supposed to. He shook his legs and arms a little to make sure he could still make use of them; he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He knew he would be alright, he had survived much worse. Though, if he didn't get some attention to it soon it could become infected and they would have to operate immediately – he needed to find his medic. Some rustling caught his attention and he looked behind him.

"Sir, are you alright?" groaned Leon, Raven Squad's medic.

"I'll be fine for now; we need to find the rest of the squad, after that I need you to tend to my arm..." Karde replied, beginning to realize what had happened.

Leon wasn't a big man, which had served its uses as a Drop Trooper. He could easily slip behind and around enemy lines, which was when he had most of his fun. However, Sergeant Karde didn't approve of this tactic – he wanted his medic to be close at hand in case any dangers or injuries were to pop up. He was easily recognizable by his right arm, which was bionic. The enhanced strength it brought to the table when fighting was enough to put anyone on nerves when witnessing him. He carried a standard laspistol in his left hand, though he didn't need anything else when he already had his arm.  
Another rumble sounded nearby, along with a painful sounding moan.

"What... happened?" asked Cultan, Raven squad's engineer as he pushed a metal pole off of himself. He didn't need any help standing up on his own, he despised assistance from anyone. Cultan always was the shadowy, mysterious type who preferred to keep to himself. He was known to only talk when the occasion really needed him to do so. He still had his weapon, his favorite serrated knife, with him. His backpack which carried his electrical equipment seemed battered, but should still work when the need would arise. Karde, who was always somewhat confused of Cultan's actions, felt that letting Cultan be the squad's scout seemed somewhat fitting – Cultan never gave any arguments.

A moment later the rest of the squad showed up. Kailish, the sniper had already found nearby flowers and shrubs to attach to his camouflage suit. He always seemed to be ready at a moments notice. Talis, Raven Squad's assault soldier who stood well over six feet, casually walked up beside Kailish carrying Rayn. Rayn was the squad's fire support, who carried a nice sized flamethrower for anything they might need to purge. His leg appeared to be badly injured.

"Reporting, sir." Talis grumbled, whilst still holding on to Rayn.

"Sir... have you seen Leon around? I seem to have need of a decent medic," Rayn announced flatly without a hint of pain in his voice. "Seems that I have gone ahead and broke it!"

"Leon, come in." barked Sergeant Karde over the voxcaster, their short ranged radio system.

"Yessir," His voice crackling through the voxcaster. "Is there something of need?"  
"Get over here, now. The rest of the squad has arrived – we have wounded that need tending to." Sergeant Karde ordered. "Now, does anyone recall what exactly happened up there? All I seem to remember is falling, then blackness..."

"Sir," interjected Cultan "We don't have time to figure this out, I have enemies inbound on my scanner. Too many to count, we need to leave. Now." He exclaimed.

A bullet streaked by and exploded into shrapnel behind his head, the telltale sign of the Space Marines, and in this case the Traitor Marines were nearby.

"Bolter rounds! Traitor Marines are inbound! Retreat!" screamed Sergeant Karde.

Even the mighty 5th Cadian didn't have enough fire power to put down a squad of Traitor Marines. Raven Squad sped off to their closest objective, the communications array. The entire squad spread out to make more targets of themselves rather than as a single group. Explosions of dirt and shrapnel were going off everywhere around them, and Sergeant Karde thought that they might actually make it to the door without any real losses, until he heard the scream. Rayn had been severely wounded from the fall, he had broken his leg. As such, he could not keep up with the hasty retreat. He was hit with a bolter round in the chest, emitting a bloodcurdling scream as he fell into blackness. This was not a planet on which one would want to die. Your body could be shattered, but your soul under normal circumstances would be fine - this wasn't the case in Khrone's domains. Your soul would be slowly feasted upon by the Daemons of the warp, the heretical Daemon dimension.

Bone and metal shrapnel flew everywhere, wounding yet another; this time it was Talis. He looked down to see a piece of what appeared to be a rib sticking in his thigh. He was tough, and he had survived much worse. He would be fine. Talis powered through what was left of the distance to the communications array, cringing away the pain.

The Traitor Marines' attack started to die down, Sergeant Karde knew it to be a bad sign when fighting against the likes of Khorne's forces who strived for nothing other than to kill, maim, and burn. Something was amiss. Squad Raven finally reached the communications array after what seemed to them to be an eternity, but in reality was only a few precious seconds.

Leon looked at Talis, noting his facial expression. He looked to his thigh to see the bone protruding from his thigh, keeping his muscles from moving properly. He quickly looked it over to determine that without proper medical facilities, he couldn't remove the bone for threat of massive blood loss.

"Where's Rayn?" shouted Sergeant Karde, his ears throbbing from all of the gunfire.  
Talis looked down and shook his head slowly in reply.

"Damn!" He didn't want to lose any of his fine squad members, and friends alike; especially not on this wretched planet. "I feel we could use his skills. His death will not be in vein, but let us hope that The Emperor is watching over him. We have to get in, Cultan?"

"Sir?" Cultan fielded.

"Run around the complex, see what you can find. I'd rather not have to go through the front if it can be helped. Report what you find, we'll find cover and wait here." ordered Sergeant Karde.

Cultan hit the ground running, he hated to disappoint his favorite leader. He turned the corner and crawled under a fallen pillar. He took note of the pools of blood he was crawling through. Someone was really unfortunate here, he thought. He heard a spine rattling roar up ahead, and he knew that whatever was up there was large and guessing by the pitch of the roar, a lot bigger than he thought he could easily handle in a fight. He drew his serrated dagger in response to the terrifying sound. He slowly crawled the rest of the way and came to a stop when he heard the heavy footsteps. Cultan slowly got up to his knees to peer over the rest of the debris that had fallen, only to spot one of the largest Bloodletter he had ever seen.

It was easily over eight feet tall. It had thick muscles all over its body, it was easy to see it was fit for battle, and it carried a huge two handed axe that was at least half as tall as the daemon was. Luck, he thought, was on his side this time, for his back was turned! He decided to take the chance. He burst from his hiding spot with inhuman speed, easily clearing the rest of the debris. He sprinted the rest of his distance, readying his already drawn dagger for the killing blow.

Luck, however, was certainly not on his side. Bloodletters are known to be fierce, wild, berserk Daemons. Being a Daemon, however, did have its advantages. Bloodletters also had enhanced senses of all kinds, and easily heard Cultan running at him from behind. It decided to wait and end this as quickly as possible.

Cultan saw the Daemon turn towards him at the last possible second, but was ready for this. He took a running slide between the Daemons legs, and came up quickly behind the huge beast, ready to strike with his serrated knife. The beast was the quicker of the two, however, and backhanded Cultan away before he could get a full strike in. His dagger had landed the blow, but a dagger wasn't much against a Daemon of the Blood God. The Bloodletter quickly turned to face Cultan, who was already up again on his feet, his face bleeding heavily from the impact of the single blow. It howled loud enough that it could be heard for a mile around. Cultan, who in response to the impossibly loud roar had to cover his sensitive ears.

He never saw the strike coming. The axe cleaved from shoulder to waist, grotesquely splitting Cultan in two. The Bloodletter roared again, and began to devour what was left of the man who had foolishly challenged one of Khorne's personal Daemons. His physical death had been swift, an uncommon thing on a world touched by Khorne. His soul wouldn't get the same reprieve.

"What the hell was that!?" screeched Leon, not very understanding of the things that they might have to face on this Emperor-forsaken planet.

"Bloodletter," Sergeant Karde reasoned "And a big one by the sounds of it. It sounded like it came from the rear of... Cultan! Ravens, to the rear!" once again, the squad ran.  
They came round rear, noting the same pool of blood that Cultan had crossed earlier, and the tracks jumping up from them.

"Hold up, men. Quiet!" ordered Sergeant Karde. He heard the grunts and bellows of the Bloodletter. "Bloodletter, twenty meters up. Kailish, flank right, don't get too close. Leon, you are with him, keep him covered." He looked over to Talis, who still had the rib bone in his thigh, breathing heavily and trying to slow the bleeding more by tying a rag around his thigh.

"Talis, can you handle a frontal assault?" questioned Sergeant Karde.

The glare Talis returned was enough of an answer for him.

"Good, then you are with me. We'll do what we can to get close. Once I give the signal - my first shot - fire at will." quipped Karde.

Everyone moved into position, taking note of what it was eating.

"That damn thing is eating Cultan!" screamed Kailish, his rage boiling at the site of a lifelong friend being eaten by a Daemon of Chaos.  
He opened fire at the massive beast.

"Who the hell is firing!? I ordered to wait for my signal!" Sergeant Karde screamed into his voxcaster.

In Kailish's rage, he wasn't able to aim as well as his normally cool self would be able to. He missed all but one of his five shots. The Bloodletter was at him quicker than Space Marine on steroids. Trying to reload was futile, he decided, and threw his gun at the beast. It was simply swatted away, barely taking note of the foolish humans attempts at slowing it. It plowed through the debris around him, knocking Leon off of his feet.

The Daemon was on him faster than he could react, and he tried to scuttle backwards as fast as he could. The Daemon stomped on his leg, shattering his shin in a white hot burst of pain. It raised its huge axe above its head, ready to sheer yet another foolish human in two.

A huge blue beam flew through the thing's shoulder, severing its arm from its torso. It roared in anger to turn and face the large man who had just harmed it. How dare something hurt a supporter of Khorne? the beast thought. Another blast went through his thigh, tearing its leg from its torso as well. It fell to the ground, squirming and reeling from its immense pain. Despite its pain, however, it had won. It had done its job; deliver blood to the Blood God. The Blood Good does not care whose blood is spilled, He doesn't discriminate. Its eyes turned black, and its mind was lost in the warp.

"Damn, that thing almost got you Kailish!" shouted Talis from across the debris.

"Yeah... thanks. I'm sorry for that outburst, Sergeant Karde." Kailish said shyly.

"Kailish, you disobeyed a direct order that I gave you, endangering the lives of not only yourself, but Leon as well. Your punishment is execution. May The Emperor forgive you." Karde stated flatly.

"Wai-!" but the sentence wasn't finished. His body thumped to the floor with a disgusting hollow thud. No more words were said. The reasoning was justified under the laws of the Imperium and The Immortal God Emperor. So, with three of the six soldiers dead, they continued back to the original spotting of the Bloodletter.

"I'm tired of waiting, Talis, take down this wall... Now." Sergeant Karde ordered, all the while staring dangerously at him.

Without a word, Talis started melting the wall with his meltagun. They immediately realized the flaw in this decision, however, has the screams of thousands of souls pounded their heads. All three of them fell, screaming. After several seconds of screaming, they stopped abruptly, though they still couldn't hear. Sound itself was muted for them. They tried communicating, but nothing was being heard. Sergeant Karde pointed towards Leon, then the hole that had just been opened. Leon looked legitimately afraid, afraid for his life. Leon stood there for a second, pondering on running away; he instantly thought of what had happened to Kailish, and realized it wouldn't be the wiser of the two decisions he was considering.

Sergeant Karde watched Leon enter the dark, melting hole and watched. Nothing happened for several moments, long enough for him to get his hearing back. As his hearing came back, he heard the screaming gradually increase until he couldn't stand it anymore. Just when he was about to run into the darkness to make it stop himself, a huge figure flew out of it. It was Leon! He landed with a revolting squishing sound, not unlike that of someone stepping on a juicy fruit. Talis ran over to inspect him; he was badly mauled. He was missing both his arms, as if they had been torn off. He had a massive gouge in his chest, and his legs were bent in the reverse direction. He had died an obviously painful death.  
Talis looked towards Karde and once again shook his head. They both readied themselves for whatever might be ready to storm out. They waited, but nothing came. Once again they readied themselves to head inside, but a guttural roar came to meet them.

They immediately stopped in their tracks. Out came a massive figure standing well above eight feet tall. He was a man, however, he wore enormous power armor covered in runes and sigils with the marks of Khorne all over. It could easily turn aside nearly any type of weapon that struck it. Bloodied spikes were riddled all about him. His weapon was a massive weapon as well. He sported a two -handed Thunder Hammer. These weapons were known to knock over tanks with just one blow, and much worse to the unlucky fool who was struck by it. This was the worst thing that could have possibly happened; a Chaos Lord of Khorne was here. Two things instantly flowed through Sergeant Karde's mind. The first thought being that they were both surely going to die. The second was now obvious. Something large was going down on this planet for a True Champion of Khorne to be here. He would never know what that would be, he realized for the second time.

The Lord bellowed as he slammed into Talis at full speed. He was impaled on the armor. He was already dead, just from being rammed by this great beast of a warrior! What chance could he have against this man? The Lord wiped Talis off of his armor and onto the ground. He proceeded to crush the remains of the body into a pulp, his way of giving blood to the Blood God. The Chaos Lord then turned and glared at Talis, sensing his fear. Karde simply wanted to drop his gun and give up at the site, but he had a job to do, and if he didn't, who could? His men made up the shock troops. If he didn't take out the communications array and the warp gate, all would be lost. Every man here would be turned into a daemon or slave of Chaos.

He couldn't let that happen. He raised his chainsword, one of the more devious creations in the forty-thousand and first century. It combined the ease of a sword with the cutting power of the archaic chainsaw. He flipped the activation switch, taking comfort in the roaring as the weapon got into gear. He knew he wouldn't succeed, but he had to try anyway.

"Foolish human. You know you can not win against the likes of a Chaos Lord. What could you possibly gain from fighting me? Your tiny chainsword won't even pierce my armor!" the Lord spoke. "You will suffer a fate far worse than your friends that have died here."

"So be it." Karde retorted with the conviction of a true servant of The Emperor.

Suddenly another huge armored figured smashed into the Chaos Lord. He was roughly the same size, but was missing the spikes. The blur of purple and bone-white moved so fast he wasn't sure what it was at first. After watching, amazed, for the first few seconds, it hit him. He is watching a Space Marine fight a Chaos Lord! The Marine was easily going toe-to-toe with this Chaos Lord. Karde pondered running into the communications array to carry out his orders, but he wanted to see that bastard of a soldier killed for destroying his squad! He would not leave this fight, he decided.

The Space Marine's weapon was a Force Axe, a famed type of weapon known all through the Imperium. It was granted only to the most experienced of Space Marines. A force weapon was enhanced with a supreme amount of energy. Instead of sheer power, like the Thunder Hammer, it brought cutting power to the table. The power on the edge of a blade was so great, that, if used correctly it could cut through nearly any type of armor. It was entirely possible to cut a way through a building if you didn't feel like using the door, if one wielded such a weapon.

The two struggled for a long while, trading glancing hits and suffering a few broken bones here and there. Karde watched in disbelief at the amazing display. He didn't know what to think! Most men live through their entire lives without getting to see a Space Marine! Yet here he was, on this Emperor-forsaken planet in the very heart Chaos, both literally and metaphorically.

Suddenly the battle was over. The Space Marine had taken the head of the Chaos Lord. Just like that, his struggles were over! He had just had a once in a lifetime experience - he witnessed the awesome raw power of the Emperor's Sons, The Angels of Death, the Space Marines!

The Space Marine noticed Karde and jogged over, taking just a few strides because of his massive size.

"Soldier, your name." demanded the Space Marine.

"S-Sergeant Karde," he blurted out. "What can I do for you?"

"Sergeant Karde, you have witnessed pure Chaos in the form of their Lord.", the Space Marine stated sternly "You must be terminated."

"W-what!?" gasped Karde "My men have all been killed already for this mission! How dare you! You are the Imperium's Finest, the Sons of the Emperor! You are supposed to aide, not destroy!"

"Chaos knows no bounds, and does not discriminate when it comes to the corruption of men. You may not know now, but you will soon suffer the sickness of Khorne's influence." stated the Space Marine matter-of-factly.

He drew his bolter, ironically the same weapon that was firing at him earlier from the Traitor Marines. Karde had never been through anything worse, he would not survive this. He heard the shell load into the chamber of the Space Marine's bolter. The anger he felt towards the Imperium at that moment!

His chainsword hadn't been used yet, and a twisted smile came upon his face. He struck horizontally at the Space Marine, catching him off guard. He started hearing whispers on the wind, voices in his head. He went at the Space Marine again.

"Heretic, this is blasphemy! You shall be purged under the Emperors Light!" the Space Marine growled. He looked towards a group of Space Marines approaching with haste at the sounds of battle. He motioned towards the one with the Heavy Flamer, a holy blessed flamethrower.

Karde managed to slice through a section of the Space Marine's knee joint, one of the weak spots in a Space Marine's armor. He knew not how he came across this knowledge. He thought, perhaps, it was from the whispers he could now hear. Were they influencing him? He cared not anymore. He had lost what he cared for, and had been betrayed the Emperor's own Sons! He quivered at the thought.

A moment later all that Karde felt was heat. His mission matter not anymore, suddenly he felt like he completed a more important task. He had completed his trial for his new god. Blood; Blood for the Blood God.

"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" screamed Karde.

"Traitor." stated the Space Marine flatly. He walked away without looking back.

Karde let the darkness finally take him. The last thing he heard was the laughing and mocking of his new God. The Blood God.


End file.
